8 loose ends that Doctor Who has left hanging

It's like a big ball of plot-y, narrative-y stuff.

By
Alan Kelly

25/02/2019

BBC

The Doctor hasn’t the best track record when it comes to cleaning up after herself, usually dashing off in the TARDIS once the business of fighting evil is done, rarely sticking around for the long haul.

Much like the character herself, Doctor Who’s creative team (since 2005) have sometimes left their business feeling thoroughly unfinished. Below, we take a look back at several loose ends yet to be revisited by the series,and speculate on how they might one day be resolved.

(For clarity’s sake: This article will focus on new Who and Torchwood and omit retro-Who, the Big Finish audio plays and other media tie-ins.)

1. Who or what is the Timeless Child?

BBC

Throughout Jodie Whittaker’s inaugural year as the Doctor, she made multiple references to her family. In a season of largely standalone stories, family was a recurring theme that seemed to tie everything together.

What initially seemed like throwaway comments in 'Arachnids in the UK' (she mentioned having sisters) and 'Resolution' (where she appeared confused about her paternity) started to pile up. Could they be hinting at a larger narrative arc?

First mentioned in 'The Ghost Monument' by the malevolent Remnants, the "Timeless Child" is a subject that's inspired much debate among fans. Is the Timeless Child somehow connected to The Doctor’s family?

Will showrunner Chris Chibnall delve deeper into the Doctor’s history for some pre-Hartnell examination of her life? Is it a coincidence that the new TARDIS team resembles a traditional nuclear family unit?

2. Why didn’t The Doctor contact Torchwood in 'Resolution'?

StarzBBC

During the Dalek-centric New Year’s Day instalment 'Resolution', the Doctor reaches out to UNIT for assistance with the alien threat, only to be told by an indifferent bureaucrat that the organisation has been mothballed.

So why not contact The Torchwood Institute? Is there something The Doctor isn’t telling us? Is Torchwood still active (omitting the Big Finish continuation)? Or have the powers that be somehow put the kibosh on them, too?

Questions, questions. Maybe next season Chibnall will tackle the issue of who exactly is protecting the Earth in the Doctor’s absence.

3. How did Missy escape Skaro?

BBC

The menacing Missy (Michelle Gomez) popped up sporadically throughout Peter Capaldi’s time as The Doctor as both a foe and a reluctant ally, before Steven Moffat introduced a redemption arc for the gender-swapped villain.

At the end of series nine's 'The Witch’s Familiar', Missy found herself in a perilous position: trapped on a planet on the brink of destruction and surrounded by Daleks.

Which begs the question: how did Missy escape Skaro and what exactly was her "very good idea"?

The next time we see her, in series ten's 'Extremis', Missy teases The Doctor that the Daleks had been gossiping about his wedded bliss on Darillium, which suggests Missy spent some time on Skaro. Did they detain her? Or did she agree to an alliance?

The latter is the most likely explanation. It isn’t outside the realm of possibility that she would join forces with The Doctor’s oldest enemy. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened in the series' history, and it would make sense, tactically at least, for Davros to keep the Doctor’s oldest friend around to obtain information, if nothing else...

4. Parallel worlds are sealed off, right?

BBC

The penultimate episode (if you don’t count 'Resolution') of last season was 'It Takes You Away' and one of the most interesting elements of the Ed Hime-scripted episode was the show revisiting the concept of parallel worlds.

In this alternate-reality episode, the Doctor and her friends found themselves at the mercy of carnivorous moths, a grotesque alien, and a powerful entity in a mirror realm. But aren’t parallel worlds sealed off in Doctor Who?

Back in 'Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel', when the tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith accidentally landed in a Cyberman-infested alternate-London, the Doctor mentioned that at the height of The Time Lords’ power, they could effortlessly travel between dimensions, but following (presumably) the events of the Time War, parallel worlds had been sealed off.

Now that Gallifrey has been restored, perhaps so has the technology that enables inter=dimensional travel? Could the Doctor cross over into another parallel universe? It's been confirmed that Hime will pen an episode next year, so anything is possible.

5. Who or what is The Minister for War?

BBC

In the Toby Whithouse two-parter 'Under the Lake/Before the Flood', Alice (Morven Christie) mentioned the Minister for War when listing major events that happened on Earth after 1980.

The Twelfth Doctor did not recognise the title but expected he'd find out soon enough. Could the Minister be a possible enemy faced by a future incarnation of the Doctor?

Unless Being Human creator Whithouse is commissioned to write future episodes, we might never know.

6. The Sandmen

BBC

Doctor Who utilised the found-footage conceit (with mixed results) in Mark Gatiss's 'Sleep No More'. The divisive episode introduced The Sandmen: monsters created via a sleep-deprivation technology called Morpheus.

A dangerous new species, they were hell-bent on intergalactic subjugation and a seemingly unstoppable new enemy for the Doctor – the last time Capaldi’s incarnation fought them, he essentially accepted defeat and ran away.

Gatiss hinted at a possible sequel episode, but it never came to fruition. Surely the Sandmen would've conquered a sizeable chunk of the universe by now?

7. What became of Jilly Kitzinger and the Families?

Starz

After the success of Torchwood: Children of Earth, Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood relocated to the USA for a big-budget, action-packed revamp of the show in 2011.

The breakout character in the Starz/BBC co-production Miracle Day was Lauren Ambrose’s agenda-driven PR woman and liaison for the sinister pharmaceutical giant Phicorp. The character was tasked with disseminating propaganda to throw people off the scent of Phicorp and the Families’ plans for an elite world order to capitalise on the aftermath of the Miracle.

The Families' scheme was thwarted by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) in the season finale with the effects of 'The Blessing' reversed. Kitzinger survived, with Torchwood believing her killed in the explosion, and the last we saw of her, she’d reconnected with the mysterious Blue Eyed Man (Teddy Sears) and was about to embark on the Families’ "Plan B".

But with no fifth season of Torchwood in the offing, we might never learn more about The Families, how far their reach extended, or how Kitzinger factored in to their plans, or even why a powerful cabal took such an interest in one woman.

Of course, there is always the possibility Jilly might resurface in a Big Finish audio drama?

8. River Song: The Biggest Loose End in the Whoniverse

BBC

Alex Kingston’s time-hopping archaeologist had her dizzying storyline brought to a perhaps-too-neat conclusion in 'The Husbands of River Song' – during 'The Time of Angels' we saw at least two blacked-out photos after Matt Smith in her Gallifreyan photo-file. And we know from 'The Time of the Doctor' that her data ghost can somehow travel in time and space, spending large chunks of time away from the library without being compromised.

Like Missy, she has her own adventures and remains one of the biggest loose ends in Doctor Who. Still, it’s feasible that Kingston will one day reprise the role. "I love the character," she recently enthused. "I think that, my gosh, there are wonderful potential opportunities down the road."

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